Welcome to the March of the Toys Madness

At the Times Union we have been getting product pitches touting wares that could be the hottest toy of 2012, among them Furby — yes that creepy-looking robo-toy from 1998.

We aim to go beyond the slick hype by offering readers, such as yourself, the opportunity to once and for all determine the Capital Region’s favorite toy of all time. Thus we present the 2012 March Madness-style bracket: March of the toys Madness.

You may be familiar with how this works, as in previous years thousands of readers voted for their favorite TV Christmas special (“A Charlie Brown Christmas”), movie (“A Christmas Story”) and song (“Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by Bing Crosby and David Bowie).

This year, we asked readers on Times Union’s Facebook Page and our blogs to suggest which toys should compete. (If your favorite toy isn’t listed, it probably means you didn’t tell us about it.) We also researched what others had to say at places like the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, Wired magazine, IGN.com and various other online lists.

We split the 64 contestants — our largest contest to date! — into eight mini-brackets: Dolls, Action Figures, Action, Arts & Crafts, Gaming Systems, Games, Old School and Construction. We then seeded the contestants based on how often they were mentioned by readers and in our research (cardboard boxes and Tickle Me Elmos rate highly).

Now it is up to you.

The voting will be the Round of 64, then the Round of 32, the Sweet 16, the Elite 8, the Final Four and then the championship. The winner — the Capital Region’s ultimate toy — will be announced in print Dec. 21.

To vote in the Round of 64, click on a bracket category below to go to that page, and weigh in on the four contests happening in each bracket:

Note: This bracket contest is for entertainment purposes only. The Times Union in no way condones any kind of gambling that may arise if, for example, you and your family (or you and your classmates or co-workers or neighbors) should decide to download a PDF of this bracket (see below) and fill it out. We cannot condone having you use the March of the toys Madness! bracket like the NCAA Tournament brackets, each player submitting a filled-in bracket and pitching in a small amount of money, with the person who wins taking home, say, half of the funds, and with the other half of the funds going to a charity of your choice, such as the Times Union Hope Fund. We have no way of preventing any of you from doing such a thing.

I’m sorry, but I never go to either the TU facebook page or the parenting blog. But I did now to point out that your contest is fatally flawed. No chess? No checkers? No dominoes? No jacks? No pick-up sticks? I don’t think A stick covers that. No playing cards? No jump ropes? No Clue? No Sorry, or it’s predecessor, Parcheesi? No Risk? And what the heck is Pog?

On the plus side, you did include Crayons, Play-Doh, Etch A Sketch, Yo-yo, Silly Putty, and Slinky. But that doesn’t overcome what you are missing. I mean, no chess? Come on!